Review- NAMOR VISIONARIES: JOHN BYRNE VOL. 1

I
am a huge John Byrne fan. I met Byrne at the Mid-Ohio Con in 2004,
and he was very gracious, answering all of my inane X-Men questions
for what must have been the thousandth time. I know that many people
have issues with the man and his opinions. I say separate the art
from the artist.

I
missed this series when it was originally published, as I was on
sabbatical from the hobby at the time. The gist of the series is
simple. Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, is repulsed by man's
destruction of his ocean environment. He decides to combat pollution,
so he once again wages war against the surface world...on the surface
world's own terms. He uses sunken treasures to make himself rich, and
buy a corporation, which he names Oracle. This was a pretty timely
topic, as I recall never even hearing of Earth Day until the much
hyped 20th anniversary in 1990. Byrne was ahead of the
game, seeing as how he would have been working on this in the fall of
1989. As of this point in the series, Namor hasn't really done
anything to help Mother Earth, but we'll see, right?

Most
of the foes that the Sub-Mariner tangles with are environmental
monsters, and are a cross between Atlas era Kirby monsters and
Byrne's Alpha Flight Great Beasts in appearance. There are
lots of great action sequences here. Namor's main foils, the Marrs
twins, heads of the Marrs Corporation, are not super villains at all.

Byrne's
art in issue 4 takes a strange turn, as he goes for a type of blueish
shading similar to Bill Everett's original take on the character in
his first appearance Marvel Comics #1 back in 1939 (itself a
colorized reprinting of Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1).

Not
everything here is gold, though. Headhunter is a downright corny
villain, and the reveal at the end of the arc was lame. Still, this
was a fun read with plenty of action and good Byrne artwork. Volume 2
has been solicited and will be released this summer.

DC
has made strides in fixing the problem of their books not laying
flat. Join the cause page if you want make sure that DC keeps up the
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